The picture of the two ships rolling to the long, low swell of the sunny sea while the Yankee tars hove up new spars, and set up new back-stays and shrouds, and rove off new running gear, and bent on new sails—while they knotted and spliced, parcelled and served, hoisted and fitted, and whistled and sang at their work—that is something to remain long in the mind of a sailor-man.
When, after two weeks of such work, the Macedonian was put in charge of First Lieutenant W. H. Allen (he who with a live coal snatched from the galley-stove fired the only gun on the Chesapeake when the Leopard attacked her) and on December 4, 1812, they anchored in New London, after which they proceeded to New York by the Hell Gate passage.
Then quickly met our nation’s eyes
The noblest sight in natur’—
A first-rate frigate as a prize
Brought home by brave Decatur.
If the American people had heard of the triumph over the Guerrière with enthusiastic delight, how shall we tell of their feelings when Decatur brought a new British frigate into port. The full story of the welcome extended to the Yankee crew would fill a decent volume. Among the midshipmen was a son of Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton. He had “served with signal bravery” and was sent with the Macedonian’s flag to Washington. He arrived in the evening when, as it happened, the official society people of the capital were attending a grand ball. Going directly from the stagecoach to the place where the dancing was going on, the lad wrapped the captured colors about his shoulders and marched into the midst of the brilliant throng. The people went wild at his coming with the news that he brought, and the men gathered him up on their shoulders and cheered till the hall trembled. And then they put him down on the floor and let him run, as he had wished to do all the time, to the arms of his mother, who was there in the room. The flag was handed to the wife of President Madison, who had been present at the ball all the evening.
A ball was given at the “swellest hotel in New York,” Gibson’s, to Decatur and his officers on the night of January 2, 1813, and on the night of the 7th a banquet was given to the crew. The decorations at the banquet were all wonderfully nautical, one feature being a model of the United States floating in a tank of grog. The men filed in and took their places to the pipe of the boatswain’s whistle, while the band played “Yankee Doodle.” The men cheered the band. An alderman made “a handsome address” and the men cheered the alderman. The boatswain replied and they cheered the boatswain. And then came the event of the night. As the boatswain sat down, a ship’s sail forty-six by thirty-six feet large, that had been spread at one end of the room, was suddenly brailed up, revealing a huge picture of the three victories that American ships had so far won. The crew gave one look, recognized their own ship triumphant over the Macedonian, and leaping to their chairs, and even upon the table before them, “they gave vent to three savage yells of victory.”
Medal Awarded to Stephen Decatur, after the Capture of the Macedonian by the United States.